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mermaidmoonqueen 's review for:
The Hundredth Queen
by Emily R. King
I received a copy of this book from the publisher on Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
When I first started this book, I was pretty sure that this was going to be a 1 star book. There's a lot about this book that makes it... very cliche. The main character isn't very pretty according to her, but is still chosen to be the Rajah's last queen. She can't fight but somehow wins the battles. She falls in love with LITERALLY the first man she ever saw. She has some kind of power that makes her unique, but she doesn't know she has it until suddenly it's awakened within her. Shocking!! Laid out like that, this could be literally ANY YA novel from the last 10 years.
That being said, there's something about this book that is oddly charming. For a while I thought I would DNF it, but I hate to do that for books I got from Netgalley so I held on. It was a pretty fast read anyway, and when you're traveling like I was, you don't really want something with a super complex plot.
Anyway, I ended up liking this book a lot more than I thought I would. The first reason being the characters. Even though the main character Kalinda had moments were she was insufferable, I also thought she had a lot of good qualities. I really liked the way she was with her best friend Jaya as well. Even when her life was changing and she met the man of her dreams, she didn't forget about Jaya in the least. Captain Naik is talking about them moving out and she's like "yep, and we'll bring Jaya" like OF COURSE THEY WOULD DUH??? But honestly I loved that. I loved how sweet she was, how she was actually pretty smart, pretty headstrong, and in general I liked all the characters in this. And in a refreshing change of pace, the female characters were the most developed, while the male characters weren't. They weren't neglected, but you could see that all the female characters, even the most background, were fully fleshed out.
I also really liked this book for the sisterhood aspect. There's a lot of this book that's centered on helping your fellow woman, even if she's not exactly nice. It's a lot about women supporting each other, especially against men who are awful. So much of this book is just reaffirming sisterhood with ALL women, and I thought that was just a great message
Finally, I actually really enjoyed this world. The blurb at the beginning said it was based on Ancient Sumerian mythology and I reallllllly loved that, I thought it was a super different take. I enjoyed the religion, the mythology, and the setting of this world a lot. The magic I thought was unnecessary because the setting was interesting enough.
All things told, I don't think this book is unique or fantastic by any means. But, that being said, it is a pretty enjoyable read and I think there are some good things that really shine in this. Do I think it's for everyone? Definitely not. But I do know there are some that are going to love this book.
When I first started this book, I was pretty sure that this was going to be a 1 star book. There's a lot about this book that makes it... very cliche. The main character isn't very pretty according to her, but is still chosen to be the Rajah's last queen. She can't fight but somehow wins the battles. She falls in love with LITERALLY the first man she ever saw. She has some kind of power that makes her unique, but she doesn't know she has it until suddenly it's awakened within her. Shocking!! Laid out like that, this could be literally ANY YA novel from the last 10 years.
That being said, there's something about this book that is oddly charming. For a while I thought I would DNF it, but I hate to do that for books I got from Netgalley so I held on. It was a pretty fast read anyway, and when you're traveling like I was, you don't really want something with a super complex plot.
Anyway, I ended up liking this book a lot more than I thought I would. The first reason being the characters. Even though the main character Kalinda had moments were she was insufferable, I also thought she had a lot of good qualities. I really liked the way she was with her best friend Jaya as well. Even when her life was changing and she met the man of her dreams, she didn't forget about Jaya in the least. Captain Naik is talking about them moving out and she's like "yep, and we'll bring Jaya" like OF COURSE THEY WOULD DUH??? But honestly I loved that. I loved how sweet she was, how she was actually pretty smart, pretty headstrong, and in general I liked all the characters in this. And in a refreshing change of pace, the female characters were the most developed, while the male characters weren't. They weren't neglected, but you could see that all the female characters, even the most background, were fully fleshed out.
I also really liked this book for the sisterhood aspect. There's a lot of this book that's centered on helping your fellow woman, even if she's not exactly nice. It's a lot about women supporting each other, especially against men who are awful. So much of this book is just reaffirming sisterhood with ALL women, and I thought that was just a great message
Finally, I actually really enjoyed this world. The blurb at the beginning said it was based on Ancient Sumerian mythology and I reallllllly loved that, I thought it was a super different take. I enjoyed the religion, the mythology, and the setting of this world a lot. The magic I thought was unnecessary because the setting was interesting enough.
All things told, I don't think this book is unique or fantastic by any means. But, that being said, it is a pretty enjoyable read and I think there are some good things that really shine in this. Do I think it's for everyone? Definitely not. But I do know there are some that are going to love this book.